


Her Lament

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Houdini & Doyle (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Season/Series 01, Regret, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-08 21:15:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7773649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You've liked me for ages and were really obvious about it and I didn't like all the attention but now you're over me I really miss it and I think I like you too?</p><p> </p><p>In other words, Adelaide screwed up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her Lament

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt: You've liked me for ages and were really obvious about it and I didn't like all the attention but now you're over me I really miss it and fuck I think I like you too?[X](http://nerds-are-cool.tumblr.com/post/133544218971)**
> 
>  
> 
> I do not own _Houdini & Doyle ___. Thanks for reading!

When Houdini had sidled into the precinct the day that the news had broken, Adelaide wasn't sure if he looked proud of himself or embarrassed. Probably proud. But he hadn't quite met her eyes for more than a few seconds, and his smile was definitely wavering, so Adelaide couldn't tell for certain. Maybe it was both.

Or maybe he was just looking for reassurance.

"Hey."

"Good morning," she greeted. She put on the smile that he expected. She could be the bigger person. (It was her fault for missed opportunity, anyway.) "I've heard congratulations are in order." Now Harry definitely looked a little abashed. Shy, even. It was not a look she associated with Harry Houdini. It was... nice, to see past that brash, confident front. Adelaide ignored the pang in her heart, and pushed ahead. "You and Bess make a great couple."

Harry opened his mouth to respond, but not before Sergeant Gudgett had come over to deliver a file, and found Houdini sitting on the edge of Adelaide's desk instead. "Well, well. The Yank's getting married," he said. There was no animosity in the name-calling. In fact, Gudgett's eyes seemed to be twinkling.

In the year that had followed Benjamin's death in America, there had been so much change. Adelaide was no longer considered the fainting maiden at the Yard. Sergeant Gudgett and even Chief Merring seemed more willing to accept her. There was less derision towards Houdini and Doyle's occasional presence in the precinct.

Concerning Houdini, all of his advances towards her had stopped after Canada. In the months that had followed, those advances had been turned onto someone else, and Harry had gotten himself a girlfriend.

As of this morning, Bess was no longer just Harry's girlfriend. She was his fiancée.

"Who would have guessed," Harry said, twisting to look at Gudgett, "Yanks can get married, too."

Gudgett barked a short laugh. "Well you didn't seem the type."

Harry arched an eyebrow.

 _Therein lay the problem_ , Adelaide thought, with no trace amount of bitterness. She had known how much Harry cared for her. She had... maybe started to feel something in return, felt something she didn't know she could feel or even wanted to, and she had... turned him down. She just... hadn't wanted to be one of his conquests. She didn't want to love and then be lost. Not again. But he had kissed her, and what had happened had happened, and he had seemed to take that as her ultimate denial. The charm had still been there, but the flirting had not. Oh yes, he still flaunted his usual innuendo, but Adelaide had found that they were not directed at her nearly as much.

And then they had stopped altogether, and then Houdini had met Bess.

It had - evidently - been a whirlwind courtship, and if Adelaide hadn't witnessed some of it firsthand, she would have worried that Harry had gotten caught up, too fast. But he seemed... in love. The way he acted around Bess, twirling his fingers through her short hair, dropping kisses against her cheek... the _look_ in his eye, when Adelaide caught him talking to his newest paramour... Adelaide had only seen that look on his face once before, and that had been when he'd been talking to _her_.

It had been at that point, with a sick, metallic taste on the back of her tongue, that Adelaide had realised she was _jealous_. That she missed Harry, missed his attention and his constant presence. He had been so strange at first, and then she had grown to tolerate his personality, and then she had grown to love his quirks.

And then, like with Benjamin, her heart had been broken. The only difference was, this time, it had been of her own choosing.

She hated that she was jealous almost as much as she hated that she hadn't realised how much she cared for him until he had moved on.

But he was _happy_. That was good. He deserved that, after he had gone and tried to fall in love with Adelaide Stratton. The woman who was unlucky in love. If she had accepted him into her heart... if she had let him court her instead of Bess... he would have ended up hurt. Or she would have, in a different way than she was now. It wouldn't have worked. They were too different.

... So she told herself.

"You're coming to my wedding, right?" Harry was asking of Gudgett, eyes dancing. "It's going to be lavish. Lots of frills. Magic and all. The whole Yard's invited. All of Doyle's writer-y friends. Lots of fun."

"That sounds wild and horrific."

"So, that's a yes, right?"

Gudgett rolled his eyes. "We'll see, Yank." He dropped the file on Adelaide's desk, and started back to his own.

"I want to see you there!" Harry called. "You and Merring both!" Gudgett only waved a hand in response, and Houdini rounded on Adelaide. "And you, too, of course." And then - _only then_ \- did the uncertainty creep back into those baby blues. "You'll be there, right?"

It meant so much to him. She still meant so much to him. That was both happy and horrible, and it was made worse by how much _he_ still meant to _her_.

Adelaide would give him her best, and she smiled warmly up at him. "Of course I'll be there," she said, and ignored the way the words tasted like poison in her mouth.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I know the show's about Harry and our Addie but as far as history goes Harry and Bess were SO PRECIOUS and I have so much love for their relationship. (and if it spins out angsty in this verse, well... that's what happens)


End file.
